Healthy Eating Workshop Cut the Salt Workshop outline (60 minutes) - PDF document

Healthy Eating Workshop Cut the Salt Workshop outline (60 minutes) Suggested handouts: • Cut the Salt Health Bulletin 1. Welcome (7 minutes) • Just Say Yes to Fruits and 2. Salt Versus Sodium – What’s the Difference ? (3 minutes) Vegetables Black-Eyed Peas 3. Sodium and Its Impact on Health (5 minutes) and Collard Greens Recipe 4. Sources of Sodium (5 minutes) 5. Strategies for Reducing Sodium (25 minutes) Optional Samples: • Samples of herbs and spices 6. Let’s Practice ( 10 minutes) 7. Closing (5 minutes) for practice activity (slide 36) 1. Welcome (7 minutes) Slide 1: A. Introduction Welcome to today’s healthy eating workshop. My name is < insert facilitator name >. The topic of today’s workshop is how to cut the salt. Ask participants to fill out a name tag and discuss any housekeeping such as bathrooms, breaks, etc. Slide 2: B. Agenda Let’s review our agenda for today ’s workshop. • We ’ ll start with an overview of salt versus sodium and how they are different, and then discuss how sodium impacts our health and what sources of sodium are in our diet. • Much of the workshop will be about learning strategies we can use to reduce sodium. • We ’ ll have time to put what we learned into practice. • And finally, we ’ ll wrap up by discussing additional resources you can use to continue learning and answering any questions you have.    If short on time, ask participants to hold their questions until the end of the presentation . 1

Slide 3: C. Objectives A fter today’s workshop, you will: • Understand how sodium affects health; • Identify the top sources of sodium in the diet; and • Know at least two new ways to help you reduce sodium in your diet. Slide 4: D. Activity   If short on time, do this activity as a group brainstorm instead of in pairs. Before we dive into today’s topic, I want to hear from you. What foods do you eat that you think have a lot of sodium in them? Turn to a person next to you and share the answer to this question. Let pairs discuss for a few minutes. Then, invite several people to share what they told their partner. Thanks for sharing. There are many foods that have sodium in them, some more than others. Throughout today’s workshop, we will share some strategies you can use to limit the amount of sodium in your diet. 2. Salt Versus Sodium – What’s the Difference? (3 minutes) Slide 5: A. What is Sodium? Before we go further, let’s talk about what sodium is and how it is different from salt. • Sodium is a mineral our body needs to help control blood pressure and other functions in our body. • When we talk about salt, we are referring to the substance you add to dishes, which is a source of sodium. Salt is often used as a preservative, meaning it helps keep food in good condition for longer, and to flavor food. So, by including salt in your diet, you are giving your body sodium to help it work properly. • Our bodies need only very small amounts of sodium. Most people eat too much sodium but may not be aware of it. • One teaspoon of salt is equal to about 2,300 milligrams of sodium. 2

3. Sodium and Its Impact on Your Health (5 minutes) A. What’s the big deal? Slide 6: Let’s talk about why sodium is a big deal. Too much sodium is bad for your health. Eating too much sodium can increase blood pressure in both children and adults. High blood pressure increases the force of blood flow in our body, making our heart work harder. One in four New Yorkers has high blood pressure, so chances are we all know someone with high blood pressure or have high blood pressure ourselves. High blood pressure can increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and in New York City (NYC). The good news is that eating less sodium helps prevent and control high blood pressure. Slide 7: B. Sodium Limits But how much is too much? If you are age 14 and older, you should have no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. As mentioned, this amounts to about a teaspoon of salt. The sodium limits for children younger than 14 are less than this, as shown here. For infants younger than 1 year old, an amount not to exceed has yet to be determined. Most people eat too much sodium without even realizing it. On average, adults in NYC have about 3,200 milligrams of sodium each day, which is more than 40% higher than the recommended daily limit. Counting the amount of sodium you eat in a day can be difficult and unrealistic. The strategies we’re going to discuss later in this presentation include ways you can avoid eating too much sodium, especially from processed foods. Using these strategies will help you reduce sodium in your diet without having to count the milligrams of sodium in the foods you choose to eat throughout the day. Note to facilitator: If asked, share the following information about salt and salt substitutes. Types of salt include table salt, sea salt and kosher salt. All have a comparable amount of sodium when measured by weight. Sea salt and kosher 3

salt have larger grains than table salt so they may contain less sodium when measured by teaspoon. Because of flavor and texture differences, different types of salt may be used at different times in the cooking process. There are different types of salt substitutes, some with low amounts of sodium. Always ask your doctor before using a salt substitute. 4. Sources of Sodium (5 minutes) Slide 8: A. Sources of Sodium: True or False? Before we talk about where sodium is found in our food, let ’ s play a quick game. Raise your hand if you think the following statement is true. Keep your hand down if you think it is false. The best way to eat less sodium is to stop using the salt shaker. Briefly pause and look around the room to see how people guessed. Slide 9: It’s false! Most of the sodium we eat comes from packaged and restaurant foods. Slide 10: Here is a look at the different sources of sodium in our diets. As you can see, 71% of the sodium we eat comes from restaurant and processed food. This is essentially food that is changed in some way, packaged, sold at stores and prepared at restaurants. Salt added during cooking or from the salt shaker at the table amount to just over 10% of the sodium in our diet. Notes to facilitator: • Other sources of sodium include tap water and supplements. • The percentages on this pie chart do not add up to 100% because the methods used for data collection analysis relied on per person 4

averages and resulted in the loss of a couple percentage points when added together. Slide 11 : Let’s do another true or false question. Raise your hand if you think this statement is true. Keep your hand down if you think it is false. Foods high in sodium always taste very salty. Briefly pause and look around the room to see how people guessed. Slide 12 : This is also false! Foods high in sodium don’t always taste salty. Specifically, the top food sources of sodium include breads and rolls, pizza, sandwiches, cold cuts and cured meats, soups, and burritos and tacos. These foods account for 44% of the sodium consumed in the United States. 5. Strategies to Cut the Salt (25 minutes) Slide 13: A. Strategies to Cut the Salt Overview Now that we’ve reviewed how eating too much sodium can affect your health, the recommended sodium limits and where sodium is found, let’s talk about some strategies you can use to cut the sodium you and your children eat. While agencies like the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Health Department) have led longer term initiatives to reduce sodium in packaged foods and restaurants, the strategies we will discuss today are steps you can put into practice in your life now. We’ll talk about ways to eat and shop for low-sodium foods, how to flavor foods without salt and how to choose foods with less sodium when eating out. Specifically, we will discuss ways to: 1. Eat and Shop for low-sodium food; • Choose whole foods over processed foods. • Check the label. 2. Prepare food with less salt; 3. Choose food with less sodium when eating out. 5